Marketing class this quarter has been one of the most fun classes. I never thought marketing and brand management was so much fun. Not changing my major though!

Last week we had the head of global marketing from Kelloggs in class giving his thoughts on brand positioning. Today we had the head of Ologie to talk about Integrated Marketing Communication (IMC). IMC is all about keeping the marketing message consistent across various formats and avenues for communication ranging from documentation to social media to internet based marketing. There is a lot that goes in creating and sustaining a strong brand – as professor Neeli likes to say “A Brand is a Promise”.

As part of the course we as a team also have to choose a brand and study their marketing. We have to understand their industry, competition, branding etc. Our team picked Pink from Limited Brands as our brand for the project. The project is a comprehensive report about the brand and our recommendations for the future. To work on this project I met up with my teammate David at his place. I had a phenomenal time at his place.

David’s Lair – as I like to call it – is a place well worth visiting. It is a treasure trove of all sort climbing gear. Apart from the marketing project we spent a lot of time on different knots and going through the gear. David explained me the use of different ropes (static, dynamic) and equipment like belay devices, carabiners, ascenders, special diamond tipped walking sticks etc.

We also went through the old Army uniforms that were lying there, David served in the US Army and while on duty he served with military from other countries too. There were uniforms of about five other countries! It was interesting to see how different each was. He also had a collection of hats and helmets, right from safety helmet to a bicycling helmet to his army caps from various counties to even Afgan head gear. His collection can very well rival the hat display we have in the graduate student lounge at Gerlach.

The highlight was when he showed me how to light a fire using magnesium scraps and flint. It was sight to behold when he scrapped magnesium and lit the home made cotton-wax bundle using his knife on the flint! David’s lair had much more to explore than the marketing project for sure. I also saw a huge cabinet full with his law school notes, I am telling you if a prospective student for Moritz saw that he would give up the idea of law education altogether.

Check out a couple of snaps of David’s Lair and when he gave me a quick lesson of repelling using his staircase as a tree.